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I often tell developers that one of the best things they can do for their own accessibility awareness is to learn how screen readers work and test with them. Today I got a response from a developer who has apparently worked on section 508 compliant websites, and it said: "Yeah, it would be a great idea for a company to buy some screen readers to test with."
I had to tell this person that most screen readers are free, and that they're built into every operating system now, and that this has essentially been the case for well over a decade.
I'm not judging, I'm just legitimately shocked. it's a long way down.
Edit because the first question I was asked after posting this comment was basically "Do you think turning it on and trying to navigate would give me a good idea of the average experience?" And honestly, I'm inclined to think this would be worse than not turning it on at all. It's much like trying to navigate blindfolded. This is why I add the "learn how they work" part. It's not intended to be a five-minute process, and actual accessibility testing should still be done by people who actually need the accessibility they're testing for.
#accessibility